Deportations

Israel's Other Unlikely Coalition

On Saturday Israeli teenagers and...wait for it...Holocaust survivors will march together to protest the government's deportation of African migrants. It's sweet, in that unexpected Up sort of way.

The protest's two main organizisers are Atta Buchman, a sixty five year old daughter of Holocaust survivors, and Oren Rimon, a fifteen year old who volunteers at a kindergarten for migrant's children. The unlikely pair met at Buchmann's retirement community; she was under the care of Eritrean immigrants and he was working on a school project. And now they're ready to march—each rallying its own—to protest of refugee deportation.

"I wasn't thinking about holding a protest before I met Atta, but having read about the current situation with the refugees I got angry and together we realized that a protest was in place as it was not done in this capacity before," Rimon said.

Buchman, who left Lithuania to make aliyah 20 years ago, has been under the care of Eritrean migrants at her retirement home ever since she underwent a stroke.

...Buchman shared her anger at the treatment of refugees in Israel. "She said that as a daughter of Holocaust survivors she is ashamed of the way refugees are being treated in Israel," Rimon said.